Trash pick up consolidation considered

Trash bins from two different hauling companies sit just a driveway apart outside apartment houses on King Street in Burlington. The Chittenden Solid Waste District is considering creating trash-hauling districts for residential garbage to be bid out to one hauler each.(Photo: TERRI HALLENBECK/FREE PRESS)Buy Photo

Outside one apartment house on King Street in Burlington are trash bins from Clean Green Sanitation. A few feet away at the neighboring apartment house are bins from Myers Container Service. That's not an uncommon sight.

In neighborhoods around Chittenden County, competing haulers traipse up and down the same streets, picking up trash from neighboring driveways, said Nancy Plunkett, Chittenden Solid Waste District's waste reduction manager. A plan under consideration would do away with that duplication by creating hauling districts for residential trash pickup, where haulers would bid to be the sole provider.

Such a system is projected to save money and reduce the amount of truck traffic, Plunkett said.

It could also put small haulers out of business and eventually drive trash-collecting costs up for customers, said Greg Nolin, owner of Nolin's Trucking in Winooski, which has been picking up garbage in Chittenden County since his father started the business 57 years ago.

Chittenden Solid Waste District knows that haulers are unhappy with the plan, Plunkett said. Two large and two small haulers are on a committee looking at the issue. Among the possibilities is adding restrictions to ensure that small haulers have a shot at some of the districts.

The Chittenden Solid Waste District is looking for input from the public on such a plan, which would have to be approved by the district board and Chittenden County municipalities before taking effect. The district is asking for people interested in volunteering to serve on a 12- to-15-person citizen advisory committee that will meet four times between July 31 and Sept. 11.

Consolidated hauling districts are the most common way of collecting trash across the country, Plunkett said. A 2008 national study indicated that 74 percent of households have access to curbside pickup, of which 85 percent are served by either municipal haulers or private haulers under contract with a municipality, Plunkett said.

In Chittenden County, only Westford has contracted hauling service available for trash pickup. Burlington provides recycling pickup.

Plunkett said some residents have worked on their own to coordinate trash-hauling service from a single hauler for their neighborhood and have found they could save money.

A 2012 study that DSM Environmental Services did for Chittenden Solid Waste District comparing the cost of the current system where 10 private haulers compete for business in Chittenden County to three potential consolidated systems. A consolidated system would reduce the cost of bi-weekly pickup for residential customers by 32 percent, according to the district.

Nolin is dubious. His small company would be at a disadvantage in bidding for larger locations such as Burlington, where he has some customers now, he said. He predicted that only a few larger haulers would be left and prices would rise for customers. Nolin said the waste district has made it increasingly difficult for small haulers to do business by adding requirements. "They don't care about putting small people out of business," he said.

Plunkett said ultimately Chittenden County cities and towns will decide whether they want consolidated trash districts. Numerous issues would need to be fleshed out. The district has on its website a nine-page discussion of the issue that includes recommendations a study committee made on some of the issues. Among them: Residents should be able to continue to have the option to take their trash to the transfer station themselves, as 25 percent do now.

Plunkett said there's no way to predict the chances of the plan coming to fruition.

Chittenden County residents interested in serving on the citizen advisory committee are asked to email advisory@cswd.net by July 16 with the following information, which is intended to allow diversity on the panel:

Town of residence, email address, phone, age, gender, occupation, whether they own or rent, number of units in the building, whether they use a hauler or drop off their own trash, the name of their hauler, whether they support or oppose the consolidation plan and that they are available for meetings from 5:30-7:30 p.m. July 31, Aug. 14, Aug. 28 and Sept. 11.